Archive for the 'Make Mine Marvel' Category

The magazine behind Creatures on the Loose #33, identified by Richard McKenna, is Modern Screen (November 1974). Bolan was a huge Marvel fan who interviewed Stan Lee on the BBC’s Today show in 1975, where Lee revealed that Angie Bowie was interested in doing a Black Widow TV series—which would have been so much more entertaining than whatever morbidly expensive glob of superhero goo that came out last week (or the week before, or the week before, or the week before…). Bolan himself was interviewed about comics in 1975 by soon-to-be Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant (credit to McKenna once again). You can read the transcript here, and there’s a picture of the article below.

Bonus: here’s Bolan with Stan Lee and Roy Wood (ELO, Wizzard) at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1975. The Marvel exhibit ran from October 18 through November 2. Bolan died in a car wreck two years later, on September 16, 1977.

Douglas Adams (holding The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy double LP) is on the left; Nick Landau (co-founder of the original Forbidden Planet and Titan Books, holding the just published Hitchhiker’s novel) is right. All comics 12p!

Promotional poster showing all of the posters in the series. The Third Eye also put out a series of postcards and jigsaw puzzles with the same designs. Overall, the combination of Marvel’s illustration superpowers with the psychedelic mindset (the third eye enables metaphysical sight, in mystical traditions) was extremely successful and influential. Not all of the posters are winners (Spider-Man doesn’t really fit), and the exclusion of Steranko’s Nick Fury is unaccountable. Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four (below) is probably my favorite. You can see close-ups of most of the posters here.

There were two coloring books and two coloring/activity books based on Dragon’s Lair, all of them published in 1984 by Marvel Books. The second coloring book is The Magic Sword, and the coloring/activity books are Dirk the Daring Battles the Black Knight and Dirk the Daring Battles the Crypt Creeps.

More on Dragon’s Lair here, and I talk about the Marvel Books imprint here.

Beautifully illustrated ads that originally appeared in the comics section of the Sunday paper. They sold recently on eBay for a large sum.

50 pieces of Bazooka bubble gum for 79¢? A Spider-Man costume for $1.98? Speaking of which, the Ben Cooper Spider-Man costume is probably the first Marvel licensed product, originally appearing in 1963, just a few issues into the comic’s run. It’s got a very interesting story that you can read at Hero Envy.

The first shot is another winner from lfics’ Flickr. The event is Galacticon II, 1979. Second photo is from Supercon 10, same year, via The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society. The costume is based on the character as seen in Marvel Premiere #45, with cover (below) and interior art by the great George Perez. The cosplayer—obviously not a term anyone used at the time—is unknown.

You know you’re good when you get asked to redo a Jack Kirby cover. All but one of the Fireside books were color reprints of classic (i.e. pre-1970) Marvel titles and storylines. This one was the exception—an all new graphic novel by Lee and Kirby, and a damn good one that I remember reading and still have. The “Origins” books were a particularly hot commodity at my elementary school, and the Surfer was way up there too. Probably my first exposure to Norem’s work.

Check out ‘Tain’t the Meat for more on the Surfer issue and the Fireside Books series.